Meal Prep: Meaty Egg Cups

If you venture into the depths of Beka ‘N Eggs, you may find an embarrassing recipe from my SlowCarbSnacktime days for scrambled egg cups. It’s really not a good recipe. I didn’t test it at all until the day I made it for that blog post and the pictures are… well, let’s call it growing pains. Really, I should delete that post, but it remains to be one of my most popular on Pinterest so instead I’ve decided to give that recipe a bit of a makeover instead.

I’m not really a big breakfast person and neither is Nick, but with morning workouts, long walks with Franklin, and lots of work-related business in the kitchen, having a quick protein bomb to shovel into our face holes is never a bad move. These are perfect for breakfast, post-workout, mid-day snack, or even as part of lunch. It helps that they taste just as good cold, or you can nuke ’em for 10-20 seconds.

Trader Joe’s have really stepped up their deli meat game lately which makes this meal prep treat even easier. (I am not sponsored by TJ’s at all, just impressed!) For this post, I used prosciutto, mortadella, and turkey to keep things interesting, but if that’s not your style you can just pick what you like most.

* While you don’t really need the baking sheet to cook anything (it’ll remain clean), it’s very helpful when using a silicone tray to keep it flat/steady which makes it much easier to get in and out of the oven.

* Even though I’m strongly recommending use of a silicone tray, I still also suggest greasing the cups with some avocado oil or ghee to further prevent sticking.

Preheat your oven to 350*F on the convection setting.

Using a sharp knife, cut your deli meat into quarters and line each cup with three of the cut pieces. This may seem excessive, but after much trial and error, it seems to be both the best portion size for a single egg and works the best for the “meat cup” we are trying to achieve. Arrange the deli meat so that both the bottom of the cup and the sides are as covered as possible, but without any sticking out over the edges.

Once your oven is heated, place the tray with the deli meat only into the oven to cook for 5-7 minutes or until the meat has dried out a little and crisped up. I recommend leaning more towards the seven minute mark for fattier cuts like prosciutto.

Remove the tray from the oven and let cool for a minute or two. Line each meat cup with a few pieces of spinach, which I like to arrange similar to the meat – partially covering the bottom and partially coming up the sides. Add a few pieces of sun dried tomato or a small spoonful of my Spicy Tomato Magic.

Now it’s finally time to prep the eggs. While you can crack them directly into the silicone cups, I prefer to crack them into a small cup or bowl and to detach the yolk from the egg white. This seems to aid in the cooking process and also cut down on cooking time by several minutes.

One at a time, crack your eggs, gently moving the yolk back and forth between the two shell halves to separate it from the whites. Add both the yolk and the white to the silicone cups on top of the meat, spinach, and tomato. Repeat this process with all 12 eggs. (I promise the separating process is worth it and doesn’t take as long as you think!)

Sprinkle the top of your egg cups with a few pieces of scallion and more sun-dried tomato.

Place your meaty egg cups into the oven and bake until whites are fully cooked, about 15 to 18 minutes.

Remove from oven, let cool completely, and refrigerate. They hold well in the fridge for at least four days (possibly longer, but they’ve never lasted that long in my house).